Out of the Box » Governor Westmoreland Davishttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box
Notes from the Archives at The Library of VirginiaWed, 14 Mar 2018 13:55:38 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.1I’m A Sap: The WWI Letters of David J. Castlemanhttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2017/08/01/david-j-castleman-letters/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2017/08/01/david-j-castleman-letters/#commentsTue, 01 Aug 2017 13:00:13 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=9759
My name is Chloe Staples, and I am from Richmond, Virginia. I am a rising senior at Lynchburg College with a major in United States history and a minor in Spanish. This summer, I am interning at the Library of Virginia (LVA) in the Information Security & Technology Services department.

My first month at the LVA has been so great. I have learned new skills that will help me down the road, worked with incredible people, and done work of which I can be proud. As one of my first assignments, I went through boxes of World War I-era documents from soldiers born in Virginia to determine which ones would be interesting for the public on Transcribe. The first few boxes were mostly boring—I read about a guy’s car sale for about ten letters! Things started to get more interesting as I went through the war correspondence files in the Executive Papers of Governor Westmoreland Davis, 1911-1922. The most interesting cache was definitely the letters from David J. Castleman—a Greensboro, Alabama native– fighting in the war abroad. His letters are some of the sweetest things I have had the pleasure to read in my, admittedly short, 21 years of life. It is both fascinating and moving to learn about someone through their letters and sort of put yourself in their position.

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My name is Chloe Staples, and I am from Richmond, Virginia. I am a rising senior at Lynchburg College with a major in United States history and a minor in Spanish. This summer, I am interning at the Library of Virginia (LVA) in the Information Security & Technology Services department.

My first month at the LVA has been so great. I have learned new skills that will help me down the road, worked with incredible people, and done work of which I can be proud. As one of my first assignments, I went through boxes of World War I-era documents from soldiers born in Virginia to determine which ones would be interesting for the public on Transcribe. The first few boxes were mostly boring—I read about a guy’s car sale for about ten letters! Things started to get more interesting as I went through the war correspondence files in the Executive Papers of Governor Westmoreland Davis, 1911-1922. The most interesting cache was definitely the letters from David J. Castleman—a Greensboro, Alabama native– fighting in the war abroad. His letters are some of the sweetest things I have had the pleasure to read in my, admittedly short, 21 years of life. It is both fascinating and moving to learn about someone through their letters and sort of put yourself in their position.

Castleman wrote to his sweetheart almost every day, even if he didn’t hear back. In each letter, he could give only minor details about where he was and his combat experience. His lack of details were due to the U.S. military’s heavy censorship of soldiers’ letters. To make sure that soldiers were not giving away vital information that could be used against Allied forces, the military opened and read over 15,000 letters from servicemen. Castleman didn’t want to be a part of this war any longer and it was apparent that he yearned to return to everyday life with his beloved, Mary Pride Jones. The letters show that he loved her more than words could describe (though, he did his best). One typical note, written to “Pride” on 4 May 1918, began, “Dearest Love: I must drop you a few lines before going to bed, just to tell you that I think of you always. I guess you know that by this, else you’d think I were a monumental liar.” What I love about these letters is that you can almost feel the emotion behinds his words, making it easy for the reader to empathize with him and his feelings of longing and solitude. Such feelings are universal and especially poignant in war. Castleman’s love was ardent and powerful, and I’ll admit, I did find myself crying after a while. Unfortunately, David J. Castleman died at age of 50 from a heart attack, as stated in his obituary on 26 May 1932. His beloved “Pride,” whom he married shortly after he returned home from war, outlived him by forty-six years and died in December 1978 at the age of 100.

After the death of her husband, Mary moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, to be closer to her twin sister who was president of St. Mary’s College at the time, but she would return to Hopewell, Virginia, towards the end of her life. Although she was a widow during the second half of her life, she was incredibly successful in keeping herself busy and raising her two daughters. She was a gifted seamstress from the age of 13, so she made many of the girls’ clothes. She was also a devoted bridge player throughout her life and played it as long as her body and mind allowed. One of her daughters, with whom Mary was living at the time, Mrs. J.P. Manley, described her mother at 93 in a local Hopewell newspaper by saying, “She has truly mastered the art of living.” So even though the love story doesn’t have the happiest ending, Mary Pride Castleman went on to live life for herself and her husband, a very fulfilling, happy, long life surrounded by friends and family, which I think is one of the best endings someone can have.

]]>http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2017/08/01/david-j-castleman-letters/feed/1Mug Shot Monday: Kenneth Frederick Thomas, No. 15150http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2014/05/19/mug-shot-monday-kenneth-frederick-thomas-no-15150/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2014/05/19/mug-shot-monday-kenneth-frederick-thomas-no-15150/#commentsMon, 19 May 2014 12:00:52 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=7824
Welcome to Mug Shot Monday! This is the latest entry in a series of posts highlighting inmate photographs in the records of the Virginia Penitentiary. Kenneth Frederick Thomas, the subject of this week’s post, was either a bigamist or a decorated World War I hero. Thomas’ version of his military service and his The Hangover-like courtship and wedding, stand in stark contrast to the evidence gathered by two Virginia governors.

Kenneth Thomas arrived in Norfolk in early March 1918. On Saturday, 9 March, Thomas, dressed in the uniform of an aviator of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), attended a dance at the Fairfax Hotel where he met 20-year-old Rose Eugene Swindell. Thomas wooed Swindell with tales of air battles with the Germans on the Western Front as a Canadian pilot. Thomas’ stories, reported the Virginian-Pilot, “blinded the young girl and she married her romantic suitor” on 12 March. The newlyweds lived at the Lorraine Hotel until the bridegroom was arrested 16 March by agents of the United States Department of Justice at the request of Canadian authorities. Thomas was wanted for desertion and bigamy.

Upon his arrest, Thomas told a very different story than the one he told his bride. He claimed he was an American citizen, had never served in the Royal Flying Corps, and was a victim of mistaken … read more »

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Welcome to Mug Shot Monday! This is the latest entry in a series of posts highlighting inmate photographs in the records of the Virginia Penitentiary. Kenneth Frederick Thomas, the subject of this week’s post, was either a bigamist or a decorated World War I hero. Thomas’ version of his military service and his The Hangover-like courtship and wedding, stand in stark contrast to the evidence gathered by two Virginia governors.

Kenneth Thomas arrived in Norfolk in early March 1918. On Saturday, 9 March, Thomas, dressed in the uniform of an aviator of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), attended a dance at the Fairfax Hotel where he met 20-year-old Rose Eugene Swindell. Thomas wooed Swindell with tales of air battles with the Germans on the Western Front as a Canadian pilot. Thomas’ stories, reported the Virginian-Pilot, “blinded the young girl and she married her romantic suitor” on 12 March. The newlyweds lived at the Lorraine Hotel until the bridegroom was arrested 16 March by agents of the United States Department of Justice at the request of Canadian authorities. Thomas was wanted for desertion and bigamy.

Upon his arrest, Thomas told a very different story than the one he told his bride. He claimed he was an American citizen, had never served in the Royal Flying Corps, and was a victim of mistaken identity. According to Thomas, he had a twin brother, William W. Thomas, who was a member of the Royal Flying Corps. After they visited their sister in New York, Thomas claimed the brothers took each other’s suitcases by mistake. He wore the uniform at the urging of his wife who thought he looked more handsome in it. Thomas also denied that he was a bigamist. He said William was the person wanted by the Canadians.

Thomas told an even more elaborate tale in his 1923 clemency petition to Governor E. Lee Trinkle and to the press. In this version, Captain Kenneth Thomas joined the French Foreign Legion in 1914, enlisted as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps in 1915, and was already married. In early 1918, on a lark, he traveled with several other officers to Norfolk. On 12 March they attended a dance at Hotel Lorraine and later went for a drive with some girls they met there, stopping to buy two quarts of whisky. Thomas became ill after drinking and passed out, only to wake up three days later in a strange room and married to another woman. After his new wife showed him their marriage license, Thomas began a quest to learn what had happened to him. He located Dr. S.W. Melton, the minister who married them. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch Thomas claimed that Melton “told him that the woman (Swindell), at the time of the marriage, said they had been engaged since 1917, that the man had enlisted in the English service, had been seriously wounded and shell shocked, had returned and that they wanted to be married that she might attend to him while he was recovering from injuries on the field of battle in France.” None of these stories were true. A guilty plea to the charge of bigamy and two clemency investigations by Governors Westmoreland Davis and E. Lee Trinkle established the true facts about Thomas.

Kenneth Frederick Thomas was born on 25 December 1888 in Brighton, New York, the youngest of ten children. Thomas did have a brother named William; he was not his twin and was in fact six years older. Thomas’ military record is sketchy and contradictory. He did enlist in the Royal Flying Corps on 23 August 1914. On 5 June 1917, Thomas registered for the draft in Rochester, New York, and listed his occupation as an auto mechanic. Captain A.C. Tweedie, commander of the British and Canadian Recruiting Mission in Buffalo, New York, wrote Governor Davis in 1918 that he “was under the unfortunate necessity of making a complete investigation into the record of Thomas and found that he was a deserter from the Royal Flying Corps (British) camp in Texas, that he had never been near the front, much less in the French Army” and had been married at least four times. “In my opinion,” Tweedie wrote, “Thomas deserves a brick wall and the business end of a firing party.”

Captain Tweedie traveled to Norfolk for Thomas’ 8 May 1918 trial for bigamy. Two young women from New York also came to Norfolk to testify for the prosecution: Thomas’ other wives, Eldred Brennan of Rochester and a Miss Williams of Buffalo. Confronted by his brides, Thomas pled guilty to bigamy and was sentenced to five years in the Virginia Penitentiary. So what did happen in March 1918? Did Thomas serve in the military during World War I? Thomas’ guilty plea precluded any sworn testimony on these issues. An investigation ordered by Governor Trinkle in 1923, triggered by a clemency petition for Thomas, provided some answers to these questions.

Frank Bane, commissioner of the State Board of Public Welfare, interviewed Rose Swindell and Dr. S.W. Melton in the spring of 1923. Neither mentions any drinking, illness or blackouts. Swindell stated that she:

“[m]et Kenneth Thomas at a dance at the Fairfax Hotel the later part of February. Was with him constantly, married him March 12, 1918, Dr. S.W. Melton performing the ceremony. Being a mere child, I was somewhat frightened on the evening of the 12th and returned to my home, spending the night there. Met Kenneth Thomas the next day, went to the movies with him in the afternoon and afterward registered with him at the Lorraine Hotel on March 13, 1918.”

Dr. Melton believed Thomas was “in possession of all his faculties at the time I married him. My secretary and son were in my office at the time and were very favorably impressed with the man. In fact, he made such an impression that I gave him a little Marriage Booklet, containing the certificate. He did not come to me at any time during the ceremony and protest that I married him while he was not in possession of all of his faculties.”

After his conviction, Thomas was assigned to the State Lime Plant in Staunton. While Governor Davis reviewed his clemency petition, Thomas escaped on 13 September 1918. Using the alias “Dewitt Ogden” Thomas re-enlisted in the British armed forces in Philadelphia on 16 September 1918. He probably injured his spine during the last two months of the war. He was discharged from the National Paralytic and Epileptic Hospital of England and the military on 14 February 1919. Still using the name Ogden, Thomas was convicted of bigamy and theft in London in 1920. From November 1921 to May 1922, Thomas worked as a chauffeur in Winnipeg, Canada. He was finally recaptured in Montreal and returned to the Virginia Penitentiary in September 1922.

Thomas was a model prisoner. His only transgression was communicating through unauthorized channels with several women of “very low character.” He applied for clemency again in 1925 due to ill health. On 20 July 1925, he wrote Miss V.E. McDougall, executive secretary to the governor, that “for the past six months my health has continued to grow worse, due to the injury of my spine received while in the army. Last month I was again X-rayed for my lungs and found to have developed pleurisy on my right side. I have been tapped or aspirated four times since being confined in the hospital and each time the same amount of fluid was taken and sorry to say I cannot see any improvement in my general condition.” Thomas’ condition worsened over the next several months and he was transferred from the Penitentiary Hospital to Memorial Hospital. Due to his serious illness, Governor Trinkle granted him a conditional pardon on 15 September 1925. Trinkle added that a pardon would “greatly ease his [Thomas'] mind and be a satisfaction to him to know that he would not die an inmate of the penitentiary and that his remains would not go to the Anatomical Board” for use by medical students. Thomas died on 21 September 1925 and was buried with full military honors by the American Legion in Riverview Cemetery in Richmond.

-Roger Christman, LVA Senior State Records Archivist

]]>http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2014/05/19/mug-shot-monday-kenneth-frederick-thomas-no-15150/feed/1Born to Run: The Odyssey of Lizzie Dodsonhttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2010/12/08/born-to-run-the-odyssey-of-lizzie-dodson/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2010/12/08/born-to-run-the-odyssey-of-lizzie-dodson/#commentsWed, 08 Dec 2010 12:00:09 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=1872
Sixteen-year-old Lizzie Dodson was convicted of burglary in Fairfax County in 1897 and sentenced to five years in the Virginia Penitentiary in Richmond. After serving half her prison term, Governor James Tyler granted Dodson a conditional pardon on 24 March 1900 and she was discharged two days later.

The conditional pardon would not be the last time a sitting governor would intervene for Dodson, later described by the Richmond News Leader as a “dangerous character.” Her remarkable story of crime, clemency, and violence is one of many contained in the Virginia Penitentiary Records Collection, 1796-1991 (bulk 1906-1970), at the Library of Virginia.

In order to receive a conditional pardon under the 1897 law, a prisoner had to serve one-half of his or her term, have a good prison record, and obtain post-prison employment. F.B. Robertson gave Dodson a job at his grocery store in Richmond, but her freedom was short lived. On 5 June 1900 Dodson was found guilty of grand larceny and sentenced to three years in the Penitentiary (she also had to serve the remaining time from her first conviction and five additional years for her second conviction). Dodson was the first prisoner ever to violate a conditional pardon and returned to the Penitentiary.

Dodson’s stay at the Penitentiary was brief. At 5:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve 1900, Dodson, clad only in her underwear, used a bench to climb … read more »

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Sixteen-year-old Lizzie Dodson was convicted of burglary in Fairfax County in 1897 and sentenced to five years in the Virginia Penitentiary in Richmond. After serving half her prison term, Governor James Tyler granted Dodson a conditional pardon on 24 March 1900 and she was discharged two days later.

The conditional pardon would not be the last time a sitting governor would intervene for Dodson, later described by the Richmond News Leader as a “dangerous character.” Her remarkable story of crime, clemency, and violence is one of many contained in the Virginia Penitentiary Records Collection, 1796-1991 (bulk 1906-1970), at the Library of Virginia.

In order to receive a conditional pardon under the 1897 law, a prisoner had to serve one-half of his or her term, have a good prison record, and obtain post-prison employment. F.B. Robertson gave Dodson a job at his grocery store in Richmond, but her freedom was short lived. On 5 June 1900 Dodson was found guilty of grand larceny and sentenced to three years in the Penitentiary (she also had to serve the remaining time from her first conviction and five additional years for her second conviction). Dodson was the first prisoner ever to violate a conditional pardon and returned to the Penitentiary.

Dodson’s stay at the Penitentiary was brief. At 5:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve 1900, Dodson, clad only in her underwear, used a bench to climb over the west wall of the prison and escaped. The Richmond Dispatch reported on 25 December 1900 that Dodson “said that after getting out of the prison she meant to don men’s clothes and jump in a freight. There can be no doubt that Lizzie needs more clothes than she has on.” Dodson remained on the run until April 1901 when she was recaptured in Fairfax County by Deputy Constable Charles Pierpont. She did not go quietly. The Alexandria Gazette reported that Dodson “proved to be a veritable amazon” and fought Pierpont “like a tiger.” During the struggle, Dodson pulled a pistol hidden under her shawl and shot Pierpont in the groin. Dodson was convicted of malicious shooting in Fairfax County and given a five-year sentence. Since this was her third conviction, Dodson was sentenced to life in prison. When Dodson returned to the Penitentiary in November 1901, she was not alone. During her brief period of “freedom,” Dodson became pregnant. She gave birth on 2 September 1901 in Fairfax County to a son, Junius Raymond Dodson. Under Virginia law an infant could accompany and stay with an inmate until he or she turned four years old. At that time, the child would be returned to the locality from which the mother came for disposition by the courts.

Now serving a life sentence, Dodson had nothing to lose and attempted to escape again. On 7 April 1908 she used a hook to dig through her wall into an adjoining cell. The cell door had been left open while it was being whitewashed. Dodson stole the keys from a sleeping guard and escaped from the building. She broke her ankle while climbing over the west wall and was recaptured. After her failed escape attempt, Dodson seemed resigned to her fate. On 24 April 1918 she petitioned Governor Westmoreland Davis for a conditional pardon asking him “to grant me a pardon in the shape of a parole to Sergeant [J.T.] Willard, this will give me some freedom and enable me to live a better and more useful life.” Willard, Sergeant of the Richmond Hustings Court, Part II, offered to employ Dodson in his home. However, Dodson’s letter omitted any reference to her 1901 malicious shooting conviction. “My only act of crime,” she wrote, “save escaping, was for the original 5 years, and I promise if paroled to Sergeant Willard to obey the conditions there-of and to do my best to be a better woman.” Davis granted Dodson a conditional pardon on 25 May 1918. I have been unable to find out what happened to Dodson after her pardon.